The Harvard Black Alumni Society gave its “Leadership and Courage” award to former university president Claudine Gay, who resigned amid dozens of plagiarism accusations and faced intense criticism for her controversial comments about antisemitism. Gay served as the Harvard president for six months and two days, and her resignation ended the shortest presidency in the university’s history.
The Harvard Black Alumni Society gave Gay the award on Saturday during a university-wide black alumni conference, per the student-run publication the Crimson. The two-day conference began on Friday, and according to the event’s printed program, the dates were “chosen purposefully to mark the one-year anniversary” of Gay’s presidential inauguration.
Harvard Black Alumni Society president Monica M. Clark said that honoring Gay’s leadership and courage at the conference was “extremely appropriate,” according to the Crimson, adding that attendees were “celebrating her, and clapping for her, and cheering her on.”
Clark, along with other Black alumni, had a closed-door meeting with Harvard president Alan M. Garber, during which they encouraged him to consider black candidates for senior positions at the university. Clark told the Crimson that the black alumni group’s priorities were relayed to Garber during the meeting, including resisting “anti-DEI pressure” and “creating a pipeline to his successor that includes Black candidates — and this time, making sure that there’s a culture where those candidates can stay and thrive.”
When Claudine Gay resigned in January of this year, she faced nearly 50 unique plagiarism accusations, most of which were first reported by the Washington Free Beacon.
“[I]t has become clear that it is in the best interests of Harvard for me to resign so that our community can navigate this moment of extraordinary challenge with a focus on the institution rather than any individual,” Gay wrote in an email to the Harvard University community announcing her resignation. “Amidst all of this, it has been distressing to have doubt cast on my commitments to confronting hate and to upholding scholarly rigor — two bedrock values that are fundamental to who I am — and frightening to be subjected to personal attacks and threats fueled by racial animus.”
The Harvard Corporation said that the university had been aware of plagiarism allegations against Gay as early as October 2023, National Review previously reported. The Fellows of Harvard College initiated an independent review of Gay’s published work at her request and, on December 9, concluded that there were “a few instances of inadequate citation.”
“While the analysis found no violation of Harvard’s standards for research misconduct, President Gay is proactively requesting four corrections in two articles to insert citations and quotation marks that were omitted from the original publications,” reads the Harvard Corporation’s statement from December.
Gay, along with presidents of other distinguished universities, faced intense criticism for comments about antisemitism made during a December, 2023 congressional hearing. Representative Elise Stefanik (R., N.Y.) confronted Gay over the chants of “intifada” that were heard on Harvard’s campus, and Gay responded that such speech does not breach the university’s code of conduct.
“At Harvard, does calling for the genocide of Jews violate Harvard’s rules of bullying and harassment?” Stefanik asked.
“It can be, depending on the context,” Gay responded. She later said, “Antisemitic rhetoric when it crosses into conduct that amounts to bullying, harassment, intimidation — that is actionable conduct and we do take action.”
Shortly after her congressional testimony, Gay issued a statement.
“There are some who have confused a right to free expression with the idea that Harvard will condone calls for violence against Jewish students,” Gay said on December 6. “Let me be clear: Calls for violence or genocide against the Jewish community, or any religious or ethnic group are vile, they have no place at Harvard, and those who threaten our Jewish students will be held to account.”
“I am sorry,” Gay further said in an interview with the Crimson. “Words matter.”
After resigning as the president, Gay returned to her faculty position and reportedly earns nearly $900,000 a year.